Damage Formulas 101

Skunk · 2017-07-28T16:33:52+0900

Please note: A discussion has already been started about different things you can do with these formulas so please direct those comments and question to the appropriate thread. https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/rmmv-damage-formula-ideas-and-help.47099/ A link to the list of script equivalents of event commands https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/rpg-maker-mv-script-call-list.46456/ Damage Formulas 101 MV Edition You probably wondered how to make a skill do more damage against enemies with a state, or heal more if player has a state, or deal exactly half of enemy's HP. And so on. All of that and more can be done through custom damage formula. Basics: Type - sets what does the formula damage or heal. None - Nothing, no damage will be dealt. HP Damage - HP will be damaged MP Damage - MP will be damaged HP Recover - HP will be restored MP Recover - MP will be restored HP Drain - Deals damage to enemy HP and restores that much HP for attacker MP Drain - Deals damage to enemy MP and restores that much MP for attacker Element - Sets which element to use. Normal attack - means will use same element as weapon. Variance - How will damage fluctuate. E.g. If skill formula says it deals 100 damage and variance is 20%, the skill will deal between 80 and 120 damage. Critical - Can skill critically hit, dealing increased damage by 300%. And now, the actual fun part - formulas! It decides how much damage will opponent take or ally will heal. Let's dissect one of basic formulas that come with RPG Maker MV - Fire 100 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2 What do things like a and b mean? a - attacker b - defender So if Actor Glasses were to cast Fire on a Slime. a would be Glasses and b would be Slime. Meaning the takes double of Glasses mat (Magic Attack) parameter and subtracts double of Slime's mdf (Magic Defense) parameter and adds that to the 100 in the beginning ofthe formula. E.g. Glasses has 100 mat and Slime has 20 mdf. If we were to convert fomula using those numbers, we'd have - 100 + 100*2 - 20*2, after calculation we see with those parameters Fire would deal 260 damage if there were no variance. But only last number in the formula deals damage. If you had 2 lines of formula. (semicolon ; tells where line ends for the program) E.g. a.atk; a.atk*2 Only a.atk*2 would be calculated for damage. Are there more letters other than a and b for the formulas? Yes. There are variables. Which are used like this: v[ID]. ID - index of the variable. So you could have a skill that gets stronger the higher variable is. E.g. v[10] * 2 - b.def * 3 Is there a way to make skill even more complex, e.g. if some variable is over 100, deal extra damage? Yes, in that case we can use if else statements. How if else statement looks: Code: Code (Text): if (statement) { formula1; } else { formula2; } But how to write it to the damage formula? It only has 1 line! Just write everything together~ Code (Text): if (statement) { formula1; } else { formula2; } E.g.: Code (Text): if (v[10] > 100) { a.atk*4 - b.def*2 } else { a.atk*2 - b.def*2 } Which can be shortened to this if you're using only 1 line of formula. Code (Text): if (statement) formula1; else formula2; E.g.: Code (Text): if (v[10] > 100) a.atk*4 - b.def*2; else a.atk*2 - b.def*2; And you can shorten it even further using ternary operator (my favorite one): statement ? formula1 : formula2; E.g.: Code (Text): v[10] > 100 ? a.atk*4 - b.def*2 : a.atk*2 - b.def*2; Symbols for statements: > - more than = more than or equal to 100 ? 1000 : 100; (If variable 10 is more than 100, it'll deal 1000 damage, else it'll only deal 100) v[10] == 100 ? 1000 : 100; (If variable is 100 or more, it'll deal 1000 damage, else it'll only deal 100) v[10] 50 && v[11] >== 25 ? 1000 : 100; (If variable 10 is more than 50 and variable 11 is 25 or more, it'll deal 1000 damage, else it'll only deal 100) v[10] > 50 || v[11] > 50 ? 1000 : 100; (If variable 10 is more than 50 or variable 11 is more than 50 then it'll deal 1000 damage, it'll only deal 100) v[10] !== 100 ? 1000 : 100; (If variable 10 is not equal to 100, it'll deal 1000 damage else it'll only deal 100) What about parameters to use for a and b? Here's a whole list of them: Current: (All flat numbers, e.g.: 900, 999, 11) level - current level (Actor only by default) hp - current hp mp - current mp tp - current tp Params: (All flat numbers, e.g.: 1337, 7331, 156) mhp - max hp mmp - max MP atk - attack def - defence mat - magic attack mdf - magic defence agi - agility luk - luck XParams: (All decimal numbers symbolizing pe…

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Started by Skunk Jul 28, 2017, 07:33 AM 281 posts Page 5 of 15 View original ↗

Solar_Flare

#81 Oct 4, 2020, 04:53 PM Source
Code:
Math.min(5, your formula here)
Oddball

#82 Oct 8, 2020, 01:01 AM Source

does this work in MZ as well?
Solar_Flare

#83 Oct 8, 2020, 11:36 PM Source

Math.min will work in MZ, at least. It's part of core JavaScript.
Oddball

#84 Oct 9, 2020, 10:11 PM Source

Solar_Flare said:
Math.min will work in MZ, at least. It's part of core JavaScript.
I was talking about everything in general
MerlinCross

#85 Oct 16, 2020, 10:14 PM Source

How would I avoid getting a Decimal in my numbers?

Example; I have a skill that cuts TP in half. But it will leave me with say .5 at times. So

a.setTp(a.tp / 2)

Used at 5 TP will make the user's TP, 2.5. I'd like to avoid that but how?
MetalLord4171

#86 Oct 17, 2020, 03:15 AM Source

MerlinCross said:
How would I avoid getting a Decimal in my numbers?

Example; I have a skill that cuts TP in half. But it will leave me with say .5 at times. So

a.setTp(a.tp / 2)

Used at 5 TP will make the user's TP, 2.5. I'd like to avoid that but how?
Are you talking about within the formula or once the formula has ended? Because after the formula is finished, the system automatically rounds the result, because items like HP and TP only accept integers.
MerlinCross

#87 Oct 17, 2020, 03:52 AM Source

MetalKing11417 said:
Are you talking about within the formula or once the formula has ended? Because after the formula is finished, the system automatically rounds the result, because items like HP and TP only accept integers.
I'm talking about this.

Guard Skill
Formula: a.setTp(a.tp / 2)

This should cut TP in half. What happens when it's left over as a Decimal? Well I don't know what the fix is but would like to as I get this. Not sure what would happen if I tried it for HP as well.
Soulrender

#88 Oct 17, 2020, 03:56 AM Source

@MerlinCross
Math.floor( a.setTp(a.tp / 2) ) but preferable way is

Math.floor( a.setTp(a.tp * 0.5) )
MerlinCross

#89 Oct 17, 2020, 08:37 PM Source

Soulrender said:
@MerlinCross
Math.floor( a.setTp(a.tp / 2) ) but preferable way is

Math.floor( a.setTp(a.tp * 0.5) )

No that still doesn't seem to work. And it's not a plugin problem before people suggest that, I'm trying this with an empty new project.
Soulrender

#90 Oct 17, 2020, 08:44 PM Source

Aaahhh now I see where is error:

a.gainTp(Math.floor( a.maxTp()*0.5) )
MerlinCross

#91 Oct 17, 2020, 11:40 PM Source

Soulrender said:
Aaahhh now I see where is error:

a.gainTp(Math.floor( a.maxTp()*0.5) )

And now I just gain a flat 50.

I'm just gonna deal with Decimal being there for this little demo idea thing. Hopefully shouldn't break the game.
Solar_Flare

#92 Oct 24, 2020, 03:36 AM Source

Try a.setTp(Math.floor(a.tp / 2)), or maybe a.gainTp(-Math.floor(a.tp / 2)).
Titanor

#93 Oct 26, 2020, 03:05 AM Source

ok so I have done something wrong with my formula and I have no idea what,
my formula is (a.atk * 4 * (Math.floor (Math.random() * v[20] ) + 1)) - (b.def * 2),
but I know for a fact it is not working because on the test enemy it is giving a solid 50 to 60 each time with actor attack being 18 and enemy defense 25 with the dice variable (v[20]) being at 48, now it should be randomized with the maths between 22 and 3406 but it is not, does anyone know what is going on here.

ps. the dice variable is controlled by a custom armor slot with different types of dice and in this example, I am using a pair of 24 sided dice and I know that function works.

edit. ok, I am an idiot, I did not realize there was an error in my code the several times I looked at it. :hswt2:
Andyest

#94 Nov 5, 2020, 02:26 PM Source
Motteley said:
I was wondering how I could get a weapon that completely ignores the user's physical/magical attack stat when dealing damage (like a gun for instance), as well as a skill that lets the user deal damage while ignoring the enemy's physical/magical defense (think Luna Λ from Fire Emblem: Three Houses).

I will give a little simplified explanation, but...

Being "i" the weapon ('cause you can use 2):
JavaScript:
for (j=0; j<a.weapons()[i].traits.length; j++){ if (a.weapons()[i].traits[j].code == 31){ if (a.weapons()[i].traits[j].dataId == 1){ /*DO THINGS HERE */ }; //Element Physical if (a.weapons()[i].traits[j].dataId == 2){ /*DO THINGS HERE */ }; //Element Earth if (a.weapons()[i].traits[j].dataId == 3){ /*DO THINGS HERE */ }; //Element Ranged }; };
Hope it helps someone.
Frostorm

#95 Nov 10, 2020, 08:08 PM Source

Are there any good programs/tools for visualizing a 3 variable function? (i.e. ATK, AGI, & LVL)
Frostorm

#96 Nov 10, 2020, 10:11 PM Source
So I've been thinking about changing my base damage formula that I would base most physical skills on. I currently use this simple formula: (a.atk + a.atk + a.agi) * n where "n" would be a coefficient that varies depending on the skill in question (e.g. normal attack might use n = 0.5). Oh, and these formulas won't contain any defensive modifiers since mitigation will be handle by Yanfly's ArmorScaling plugin. Anyway, my goal overall is to create a formula that is mostly affected by ATK but also minorly/secondarily affected by AGI. So here's a couple I'm considering:
- a.atk ** 2 / a.level + a.agi
- a.atk * a.agi / a.level + a.atk
  
  Math.sqrt(a.atk * a.agi) + a.atk
- Math.cbrt(a.atk ** 2 * a.agi)
  
  Math.cbrt(a.atk ** 2 * a.agi) + a.level
  
  Math.cbrt(a.atk ** 2 * a.agi) + a.atk
- a.atk * (a.atk + a.agi) / a.level
What are your guys' thoughts on these potential formulas? Should I stick w/ what I'm currently using or switch to one of these? I'm kind of leaning towards the formula in the last bullet point. Keep in mind, I can wrap the entire formula in parenthesis to add a coefficient to scale for various skills.

Edit: Maybe this one? Math.cbrt(a.atk ** 2 * a.agi) + (a.atk + a.agi / 2)

Here's what I want from my formulas...
- ATK & AGI synergy (i.e. greater effect if both ATK/AGI are high)
- ATK should contribute the majority of dmg, AGI a minor boost
- Bonus if we can get a Sigmoid function going lol
Update: Ok, I finally settled on a formula... (a.atk * a.agi) / (a.atk + a.level) + a.atk
It checks all the boxes for me, making sure that Strength contributes more damage than Dexterity while also including an instance of a.atk*a.agi somewhere for some synergistic oomph.
Solar_Flare

#97 Nov 16, 2020, 12:07 AM Source
Frostorm said:

a.atk^2 / a.level + a.agi

Math.cbrt(a.atk^2 * a.agi)

Math.cbrt(a.atk^2 * a.agi) + a.level

Math.cbrt(a.atk^2 * a.agi) + a.atk

Edit: Maybe this one? Math.cbrt(a.atk^2 * a.agi) + (a.atk + a.agi / 2)
I realize you didn't end up going with any of these formulas, but in case someone else sees this, I feel I have to point out that they don't do what you probably think they do. The error you seem to have made is that ^2 does not means "squared". It is valid JavaScript, but what it means is probably not useful for damage calculations (it performs what's called a "bitwise xor" of the attack value with the value 2).

If you want to square the attack value, you need to write Math.pow(a.atk, 2) or a.atk ** 2.
Frostorm

#98 Nov 16, 2020, 03:00 AM Source

Solar_Flare said:
I realize you didn't end up going with any of these formulas, but in case someone else sees this, I feel I have to point out that they don't do what you probably think they do. The error you seem to have made is that ^2 does not means "squared". It is valid JavaScript, but what it means is probably not useful for damage calculations (it performs what's called a "bitwise xor" of the attack value with the value 2).

If you want to square the attack value, you need to write Math.pow(a.atk, 2) or a.atk ** 2.
Yea I was writing that in mathematical/Excel notation, not javascript. Trust me, I didn't copy-paste that into the formula box lol. I just had Excel open w/ all the potential formulas I was considering, so I used that (then I just tacked on "Math."). In my database, it shows as a.atk ** (1 + a.agi / 1000). I assumed people were smart enough to tell the difference lol. I fixed it in case someone came along and tried to copy-paste.
Gorgutz777

#99 Jan 3, 2021, 08:54 PM Source

Until now, one of the damage formulas I've been using is something like this:
a.atk * 1 * (a.isStateAffected(10) ? 2 : 1)
so as long as the character is affected by that state, the skill will double its damage. Now I've been wondering if there is a way to make a damage formula that checks for multiple states instead of one. Basically, what i'm trying to figure it out is one of the following (or both if possible).

1) Check if the character/target has one of two possible state, and if it does, then increase damage. For example, if a character is afflicted with poison OR blind then the skill does double damage (not stacking)

2) Similar to the previous one, but in this case, the damage will be boosted for each state. For example, if the character is afflicted with poison, increase the damage +20% (or whatever value). Then, if it's also affected by blind, increase another 20%. If it's also affected by silence, another 20% and... etc.
Frostorm

#100 Jan 3, 2021, 11:09 PM Source

It would look something like this:
a.atk * 1 * (a.isStateAffected(10) || a.isStateAffected(11) ? 2 : 1)